


Annoyed

by astudyinfic



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Coffee Shop, Fandom Trumps Hate, Fluff, For a Saphael fic it has a surprising lack of Simon, Friendship, M/M, Raphael being Raphael, Simon being Simon, Soulmates can hear each other's thoughts, canon adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23632279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinfic/pseuds/astudyinfic
Summary: No.No.When Raphael pictured his soulmate it wasn't anyone like...him.  How could the universe be so cruel?There's only one person Raphael could turn to in a moment like this.
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Raphael Santiago, Simon Lewis/Raphael Santiago
Comments: 18
Kudos: 156
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2020





	Annoyed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TobytheWise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TobytheWise/gifts).



> For tobythewise!
> 
> Thank you for your kind donation to Fandom Trumps Hate. 
> 
> I hope this fic is everything you wanted it to be!

People described the feeling like being struck by lightning, an electrical charge that made your heart skip a beat in the most pleasant and exciting of ways. Others describe it as warming starting in your heart and radiating out to your extremities.

Magnus said it was like magic dancing along his skin the first time he saw Alec.

He’d never heard anyone describe what he felt when it happened to him. For Raphael, it was a bucket of ice water dumped on his head, the unshakeable knowledge that his life just became so much more difficult than it had ever been. It left him cold, stoic. Terrified.

The moment the first thought that wasn’t his own sounded inside his head, Raphael knew nothing would ever be the same, and he didn’t like it one bit.

Because his soulmate had to be the single most annoying person on the face of the planet.

Raphael didn’t say that lightly. He grew up in a large family in a small home. He could deal with annoying better than most. His best friends were Magnus and Ragnor who both drove him up the wall in very different ways. But Simon took annoying to astonishingly high new levels. He might be the world record holder in annoying. All other annoying people bowed down to his greatness.

Yet, Raphael wanted to know more. He wanted to be annoyed for the rest of his life.

And, _dios_ , wasn’t that the most annoying part of it all?

Everyone grew up wondering about their soulmate. The one person who was supposedly their perfect match. The one who, when your eyes met, you could hear their innermost thoughts.

Raphael imagined his soulmate would have deep and wonderful thoughts, that they would be able to discuss all the things that mattered most to him and he would know their feelings on them instantly.

What he got instead was a bunch of panic and then a running commentary on his lips. _“Ohmygod did I just hear his thoughts? Can he hear my thoughts? Stop thinking bad things about his lips. STOP THINKING BAD THINGS ABOUT HIS LIPS!”_

What his soulmate heard from him, Raphael wasn’t sure but he was fairly certain it had to do with how annoying Simon was.

Raphael didn’t know what to do. How could that man be his soulmate? How was he ever going to cope with him, not just for the few years most people got but the eternity facing two vampires? There was only one person he could turn to, as much as Raphael hated to admit it.

* * *

“I’m glad you invited me out,” Magnus said, sliding into his seat. He set the cups down in front of him and Raphael. “It’s been too long.”

“It has.” Raphael wrapped his hands around the cup he had no intention of drinking from. Sometimes it was nice to do something normal, something that had nothing to do with the Shadow World, even if he couldn’t enjoy every part of it. He and Magnus had been meeting in restaurants and coffee shops all over New York for the better part of fifty years. But the last six months had been too busy to allow them time for a visit. Between the constant drama from the New York Institute upending the tentative peace in the city and Magnus managing to find his soulmate in the chaos, Camille’s betrayal and Raphael taking over the clan, their normal rituals were put aside until they found the new normal.

While things were not normal yet, Raphael needed to talk to Magnus, and he needed to talk to him now.

But now that they were face to face, Raphael cursed himself for having this idea. He didn’t want to deal with Magnus’s reaction to this. It would be joyous in a way only Magnus could manage and now Raphael had no choice but to go through with it.

“So, Raphael, I’m assuming you had a reason for asking me out. You don’t just call to spend time with me.”

Magnus knew him too well and even when Raphael thought he was getting something past him, he was wrong.

He took a deep breath and told Magnus before he could talk himself out of it. “I met my soulmate.”

Exactly as expected, Magnus was on his feet, pulling Raphael into his arms. “My boy, I’m so happy for you. Tell me all about them. I’m sure they’re perfect.”

“On the contrary.” Raphael sat and glared at the cup in his hands. He had always thought about what his soulmate would be like. The person who is his soulmate, however, was the exact opposite. “He has to be the most annoying person I’ve ever met. And I do not say that lightly.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Magnus sipped his coffee, looking endlessly amused which only served to further Raphael’s irritation. “We have both met Ragnor, after all.”

With a roll of his eyes, Raphael shook his head. “You know him actually. He’s the new fledgling, the one that’s friends with that Fairchild girl.”

“Solomon? No, wait, that’s not right. Simon?”

Raphael nodded. Why did this have to be so difficult, why couldn’t the universe give him the soulmate he wanted? For a while, he’d suspected Ragnor was his soulmate but it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. He would never, in a thousand years, have guessed that his soulmate would be a newborn vampire who voluntarily studied _accounting_. And seemed to enjoy it, considering that he was already talking about how to go back to class.

When Magnus stopped to consider that, Raphael wondered if he was as flabbergasted as he was. Truly, this had to be a mistake, the universe playing a cruel joke on him.

“He isn’t what I would have pictured before now,” Magnus started and Raphael could hear the ‘but’ coming from a mile away. “But it makes a lot of sense when you consider it. I hardly would have expected my soulmate to be a Shadowhunter. We don’t always get what we want but we get what we need, we get the one that is perfect for us, outside of our own small expectations.”

He hated it when Magnus was the reasonable one. When that happened, it made Raphael question so many truths in his life. But right now, he knew his best friend/surrogate father was right, as much as it pained him to admit it. Maybe it was time to let go of his idea of what his soulmate would be and focus on who his soulmate actually was.

“He’s still annoying.”

“And so are you, my dear. In very different ways, granted, but I think you’ll find that you are far more compatible than you ever considered.”

He couldn’t stop the scoff that came from deep inside him. They might get along and Raphael might someday love him but he failed to see how compatible they were.

Magnus rolled his eyes heavenward. He held up his hand, ticking off his points. “Would you like me to list the ways? You are both religious. You are both deeply protective of your friends to the point that you both died for them. You come from families with single mothers doing the best they can in this city. You are both stubborn to a fault, which might have something to do with being native New Yorkers or it might just be your own annoying personalities. Your interests may be very different but at your core, you two are probably more similar than anyone would believe.”

Magnus was right. Of course, Magnus was right. He often was, much to Raphael’s annoyance. But the question now was what to do about it. So instead of arguing about Magnus’s all-too-accurate assessment, Raphael asked, “If that is all true, what do I do about it?”

“If you heard his thoughts, then clearly he heard yours as well, thoughts that were not as complimentary as they could have been, were they? Which means that he is waiting for you to come to terms with all this. Or he’s as annoyed as you are. Either way, this is on you. Ask him out. Or just, god forbid, talk to him. I bet you will both be pleasantly surprised.”

Nodding, Raphael let the topic drop. He needed time to think, without Magnus interrupting. The conversation meandered as it often did when the two of them got together. In public, they couldn’t exactly discuss the current issues surrounding the Shadow World, and so they kept things light and superficial. By the time they were walking out, Magnus tossing his empty cup while Raphael threw away his still full one, Raphael felt much lighter than he had been before.

After a quick hug and a promise to keep in touch, he watched Magnus walk away, knowing the warlock would make a portal the first chance he got. Raphael smiled to himself and turned to walk slowly back to the hotel. He pulled out his phone and dialed one of the newest numbers programmed in there.

The man on the other line sounded breathless when he answered, Raphael observed with a wry smile; humorous since Simon didn’t actually have to breathe at all. “Raphael! I’m so glad you called! I wanted to talk to you more but you were upset last time and I didn’t want to make you more upset but I’m excited to talk to you about all this but...”

“ _Simon_ ,” Raphael sighed with amused exasperation. He found that it didn’t bother him quite as much as he expected. “Would you like to go out tonight? There are things you still need to learn about being a vampire and I...I thought we could get to know one another. Since, you know.”

“Since we’re soulmates?”

“Yes.”

He could practically see Simon smiling through the phone. “I’d love to. Meet you at the hotel?”

“I’ll be there in five minutes.” Raphael hung up and slid his phone back in his pocket. He continued walking, heedless of the number of people out, even at the late hour. His eyes drifted up to the stars, to the heavens. Whoever it was that chose soulmates had a hell of a sense of humor, but Raphael couldn’t help but think that maybe they did get it exactly right.

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thank you to Janusa for reading it over! Love you!
> 
> Come yell at me on tumblr at [astudyinfic](http://astudyinfic.tumblr.com) or twitter at [astudyinfic](http://twitter.com/astudyinfic).


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